10/12/2012

Review: Titanic The Artifact Exhibition is a good history lesson

FORT WORTH, Texas - A small piece of the Titanic's hull sits under a glass case at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, and with your index finger you can touch the ship that sank more than 100 years ago.

The "Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition" gives patrons the rare chance to touch the boat itself. The bummer is there is no Heart of the Ocean diamond, and no Kate or Leo. FAIL!

Word of advice: Expect a solid and interesting history lesson, but in terms of artifacts do not plan for anything too grand. The exhibit is well laid out and is a nice history lesson of the ship's origins, original designs etc. One display shows what a first-class cabin, second-class cabin and steerage class quarters looked like.

* A first-class ticket cost $2,500, or in today's money $57,200. The two best suites on the ship cost $103,000 in today's currency, slightly more than it costs to park at Cowboys Stadium.* In the third-class section there were two toilets for 700 guests. The display at this exhibit says most of the people in steerage had never used operating toilets before, so it was an automatic.

In terms of artifacts, these things are inherently limited. Crews that have submerged to survey and collect from this site in the North Atlantic have agreed to only retrieve items from the nearly two-mile radius; nothing from the actual boat site has been moved.

That does leave people with the chance to see perfectly kept dishes, complete with the White Star logo; there are champagne bottles, that are still corked; eye glasses; clothes; a pipe with tobacco; post cards; currency; coins; portholes, etc.

This is a timed tour so you can't just linger forever, but, yes - there is a gift shop at the end.